TLDR
- Cathie Wood’s ARK funds bought over 3.29 million SpaceX shares worth ~$529.7 million on its first day of trading
- SpaceX shares surged 19% on debut, pushing Elon Musk’s net worth past $1 trillion
- ARK sold shares of AMD, Tesla, Roku, Baidu, and Cloudflare as part of a portfolio rebalance
- ARK Innovation ETF is down 2.85% this year, while the S&P 500 is up 8.56%
- Wood predicts rate cuts and calls AI a “great acceleration” driving a deflationary economy
Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest made one of its biggest single moves in recent memory on June 12, buying more than $529 million worth of SpaceX stock on the company’s first day of public trading.
ARK funds purchased 3,291,184 shares of Space Exploration Technologies Corp at a closing price of $160.95. SpaceX shares jumped 19% on debut, a rally that pushed Elon Musk’s net worth above $1 trillion.
Space Exploration Technologies Corp., SPCX
Wood was not a new believer in SpaceX. ARK first bought shares in late 2023, and SpaceX had grown to become the largest holding in the firm’s roughly $1 billion internal venture fund before the IPO.
Musk founded SpaceX in 2002 as a reusable rocket company. Today, its only profitable unit is Starlink, its satellite internet division. The company’s prospectus shows an accumulated deficit of $41.3 billion as of March 31.
Some analysts have raised concerns about the IPO structure. Technical trader James DePorre pointed to a 30% retail investor allocation, far above the typical 5 to 10%, saying it could create selling pressure as early buyers take profits.
ARK Trims Tech Positions
While adding SpaceX, ARK was selling elsewhere. The fund offloaded 80,536 shares of Advanced Micro Devices worth $39.3 million, spread across multiple ETFs. It also sold shares of Tesla, Roku, Baidu, and Cloudflare.
The Tesla sale totaled $15.9 million, Roku came to $11.8 million, Baidu was $7.8 million, and Cloudflare was $2.5 million. ARK also sold shares of Strata Critical Medical for $2.6 million.
The moves point to a shift in the portfolio away from tech and toward space exploration.
ARK’s Recent Performance
ARK’s flagship fund, the Innovation ETF, has had a rough year. It is down 2.85% in 2026, while the S&P 500 has gained 8.56% over the same period.
Over five years through June 12, the ARK Innovation ETF posted an annualized return of -8.06%. The S&P 500 returned 11.84% annually in the same window, according to Morningstar.
From 2014 to 2024, the fund wiped out $7 billion in investor wealth, making it the third-biggest wealth destroyer among mutual funds and ETFs, per a Morningstar analysis.
Net outflows from the ARK Innovation ETF reached roughly $294.27 million over the past 12 months through June 11, according to ETF research firm VettaFi.
Two ARK funds ranked among the worst-performing ETFs in Q1 2026, according to Morningstar analyst Bella Albrecht.
Wood still sees a strong economic picture ahead. She has called AI a “great acceleration,” arguing that AI training costs are falling 75% per year, and inference costs are dropping as much as 85% to 98% annually.
She is also watching the Federal Reserve closely. She said on June 5 that she believes incoming Fed Chair Kevin Warsh will cut interest rates as productivity rises and inflation cools.
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